This astonishing collection of rare Pop songs by Gypsy musicians from Tito’s socialist Yugoslavia builds on the success of Asphalt Tango Records' "Sounds from a Bygone Age" series, which gathered together long-lost gems of Romanian music.
Now delving for the first time into the untapped riches of the former Yugoslavia, "Stand Up, People" presents the diverse and almost forgotten sounds of 60s and 70s Serbia, Macedonia and Kosovo, with nineteen tracks that highlight the flowering of Roma culture in that period.

The album features the raw, the beautiful, and often the surprising, showcasing Roma musicians’ early experiments with synthesisers, electric guitars, and their growing sense of identity with their ancestral homeland, India. We hear incredibly rare early recordings of the King and Queen of Gypsy music, Šaban Bajramovic and Esma Redžepova, displaying the soulfulness that launched their careers. Other singers are less famous: Muharem Serbezovski and Medo Cun, for example, whose high-octane songs feature driving rhythms and a freewheeling Jazz aesthetic that reaches its peak in spiralling improvised solos. What is perhaps most remarkable about Stand Up, People is its inclusion of incredibly rare Kosovan Roma music. This work, exploiting distinctive oriental sounds, has lain unheard for decades. From the Kosovan Roma wedding-singing superstar Nehat Gaši to super-rare artists who only ever released one single, Stand Up, People digs deeper into the corners of Balkan Roma music than ever before.